Groot Is Back And He’s Flipping You Off!
Reviewing Lego’s “I am Groot” 76217 set.
This one just kind of happened. Went to the dentist after lunch, and decided to reward myself with a Lego set on my way home. I had no clue what I’d get, just wanted to keep it under 100 bucks. To my surprise, as I walked into Smyths Toys, I saw everyone’s favourite plant friend from the Marvel universe — Groot! Now, one thing to know about me, I am not one of those crazy religious superhero nerds. I’m fine with both Marvel and DC. I know this might sound like blasphemy to some, to them, I tell, chill the feck out, go get angry at someone else.
Regardless of my nonreligious affiliation to the Marvel universe, Groot I always felt was more human than any superhero out there, which is funny given that he isn’t a human. He’s a plant. A tree. Used to be a big tree, now he’s a small tree because he sacrificed his older version of himself to save all the others. Take a moment to take that message in. Trees saving everyone… Powerful, innit?
This isn’t the first time Lego collaborates with the Marvel or DC universe, but to be honest, it’s the first time I got really excited about an upcoming set. That’s right. In some countries, the “I am Groot” 76217 set hasn’t even been released yet. In the US, it’s going live on the 1st of August. In Europe, I guess we got lucky, and since the first of June it’s available in stores and the Lego website. I actually didn’t realise this until today, hence not ordering it online and being surprised to see it in the shop. However, I did order other new — and very cool — sets that just launched, so subscribe to get those reviews directly into your inbox.
The “I am Groot” set is definitely on the smaller end of the scale, and retails just under 50 bucks. I can foresee this dropping to as low as 40 bucks at some point in the future, so keep an eye out for bargains. Having said that, this is also a set that I would advise getting as an investment. In just a few years this will likely sell anywhere between 100–200 bucks, and likely a lot more in a decade or two, especially if unopened and sealed.
Groot is made up of around 400 pieces. The box states 476 as a piece-count, but when taking into account the Infinity Saga plaque and the retro audio cassette, you’re left with around 400 to build Groot, and you’re even left with a decent number of extra parts. That being said, you’ll still be spending a total of about 2 hours building it all. And even Groot himself is actually an impressive build with just 400 pieces. Some interesting techniques, and unusual parts I, for one, haven’t seen before, while others the first time in this colour.
Speaking of colour, we’ve established that Groot is, in fact, a plant, so the choice of colours is unsurprising — very earthy-looking, pastel, sandy colours dominate most of the set. Browns and greens are predominant.
The resulting build definitely looks pleasing to the eye and represents the Marvel character better than I expected. I think the box’s design doesn’t do it justice. In person, Groot looks a lot more fun, though I have to admit, that’s helped by the fairly large number of stickers the set comes with.
On that note, this is not a tough build apart from a couple of steps where one needs to really pay attention, but in general, it’s quite straight-forward. I think the 10+ age-rating is accurate. It contains just enough Technic parts to get someone briefly introduced to Lego’s Technic universe.
Playability-wise, I’ll have to be honest, it’s certainly not the most ideal version of Groot to play with. While not overly fragile, a kid having an active play afterwards, with other friends will quickly see Groot in pieces, and I don’t mean sad or depressed, but in actual pieces. This is a set more intended for displaying in one’s room or office. At that it does an excellent job, in fact, a much better job than most sets. The reason? Groot is very expressive in this Lego build and the fairly high level of articulation it’s capable of, can result in some very impressive poses, and yes, it can even flip people off!🖕😆 Hey, it’s all good fun.😉
Build stages
The set is built over three main stages. Note that the first stage also includes the plaque and the cassette, but you’ll see them only in the last photo.
”I am Groot” is everyone’s set…
This is probably the only superhero set I would recommend to anyone, not just Marvel fans. Let me put it this way: if you have a heart, you’ll love Groot in any form, but in Lego form even more so.
The building experience of Groot brings the superhero closer than ever to one’s heart and imagination. Lego managed to pack all of its loveable personality and cool-factor into a surprisingly fun and affordable set.
Yeah, stop reading me rambling on about it. Instead, go, get it, build it and enjoy a set that will undoubtedly put a smile on your face every time you look at it.
Set stats
- 476 total pieces
- set size: small
- age-rating: 10+
- average build-time: under 2h
- display set: yes
- new/interesting parts: yes
- playability: limited
- design: excellent
- height: 26 cm
- width: 11 cm
- average price: 50 Euro/USD
Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, Lego fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer!
